Postal Service On The Road With `Bar Code` Show

HALLANDALE -- Soon, merchants may be mailing fliers using equipment similar to price scanners in supermarkets.

A mobile U.S. Postal Service exhibit, depicting the use of bar codes, stopped in Hallandale last week to give merchants a peek at how mail will be sorted in the 1990s -- and beyond.

The 45-foot trailer is touring the country extolling the benefits of barcoding with lighted diagrams and a video hosted by John Ratzenberger, the actor who plays Cliff the Mailman on the NBC-TV comedy series Cheers.

The reason for barcoding is simple, said Howard Shelton, a senior account executive for the Postal Service who was the exhibit tour guide on this day.

``We call it a work-sharing program,`` he added. ``If you bar code it and presort it, we share the savings with you.``

Bar codes are the short black lines found on most grocery items. On envelopes, they are placed in the bottom, right-hand corner. These lines translate the Zip+4 nine-digit zip code into a language postal computers understand. With automated processing, the computer reads the bar codes and sorts the mail faster and more accurately.

Local post offices are offering discounts to business mailers who use bar codes and Zip+4. Post offices have offered to check, correct and add the Zip+4 codes to company mailing lists free, as long as the mailing lists are on compatible computer diskettes and systems.

Zip+4 and barcoding was introduced in 1983 to accommodate the increase in mail nationwide. In 1990, the Postal Service expects to process 175 billion pieces of mail.

The mobile exhibit traveled to Palm Beach County the following day, stopping at the Arvida Park of Commerce in Boca Raton.

For more information, merchants should call their post office account representatives. In Fort Lauderdale, call 527-3240 or 527-3239. In West Palm Beach, call 697-2015.